So here's the deal...

Have decided to leave Korea early. Gave my letter of resignation to my school on Monday, stating that my last day will be February 28. I didn't realise that it was a Sunday, but they are cool with it. The teachers handling the situation are being very understanding and supportive. Since Feb 28th is exactly 6 months, I don't have to pay back the re-imbursed airfare and settlement allowance of 300,000won. Also, since it's exactly half of my 1 year contract, they are allowing me to have half of my holidays. I've got 5 days in Jan (the first full week of Jan, so 1st through to the 10th), and then 5 days in Feb (from Lunar New Year - Feb 13 to Feb 22), and then the last 4 days at work, preparing things for a new (possible) replacement.

It wasn't a decision that I made lightly. I haven't been enjoying my job pretty much since I got here. I have no big regrets (small ones, yes, but not big ones) about taking this job and trying something new in a place I've been before. One thing that this experience has emphasised more for me, is that you're the only person who can truly look after you. I now know that Korean public schools aren't my thing. Outside of work, I am enjoying my life here in Korea, but to have to go to a place you don't want to go to 5 days a week, is hard.

I've got issues that I have to deal with back at home as well, and I'll be honest, if these issues didn't come up, I would have tried to stay in my job for 12 months, and I think I could have. But, this is just the way it is. You gotta do the best with what you've got.

As Kenny has said:

You gotta know when to hold 'em
know when to fold 'em
know when to walk away
know when to run

For my own sake, it's time for me to fold 'em and walk away, so I can come back feeling better than ever.

Yeah, I do want to come back to Korea. This chapter in life has taught me to look before you leap, test the waters before jumping in. I think a part of me was so eager to get back to Korea, that i jumped into this job a bit too quickly. If you have to go to a place 5 days out of 7, you should may as well enjoy it - and I'm not.

So this is how it works:
Feb 26 (fri) - last working day
Feb 28 (sun) - last official day, and moving out of apartment day
Mar 1 (mon) - public holiday (independence day)
Mar 2 (tue) - first day of the new semester
Mar 3 (wed) - meet my co-teacher in Suwon so that I can cancel my visa/sojourn properly
Mar 5 (fri) - get to incheon airport by 9, so that I can check in for a flight that leaves at 11am.

From my experience, Koreans can plan stuff pretty well, when they need to. I've given them more than 60 days notice as to when I'm going to quit (sure it's only 10 days, but any bonus is good), so that they have a bit more time to try to find a replacement. I've told them if they would like any help from me, then all they have to do is ask - it's the least I could do since they're helping me out too.

I've also sorted out places to stay from Feb 28 to Mar 5. Friends are awesome when they help out - I'd like to think that they know that I would do the same for them as well.

Possible move to tumblr?

I've created a tumblr account, and have been posting some stuff on that. I find the layout and usage a lot more cleaner and easier than here in Blogger. Sure, Blogger can do more stuff (like comments ^^ hehe), but tumblr has a design factor that I love. Anyway, I'll be posting random stuff on my tumblelog that doesn't really need a full post to go here.

andyoppa.tumblr.com
Check it out ^^

I had GEPIK orientation from Monday to Wednesday this week. Overall, it wasn't too bad. Too many young, arrogant people there for my liking. No life experience, with the idea that coming overseas to "teach" would be a walk in the park, and then having a whinge and a cry when things in Korea are different and not what they expected and not trying to understand what's going on, and then telling Koreans that they have to be open-minded because they come from a different place.

As Anrie said in Kindergarten Cop (I think):

You're in my world now!

I'd often have Korean friends tell me that parents who said their kids to hagwons and other English learning places that have a foreign English teacher, that they're worried about the foreign teacher not being qualified, and only just being there for show/to make more money. After being in a room with 250 other "teachers", I finally understood what my friends were talking about. Don't get me wrong, I met some awesome people there, who are trying their best to teach, without a background in teaching - they have their students' learning and well-being in consideration at all times. But a lot of others I met (mainly young ones who just got out of college, who didn't study either English or Education) are the ones I was talking about in the above paragraph.

They're also the ones that kept me up at night, until 2 or 3am, with noisy drinking - only making that bad stereotype about young foreign english teachers in Korea stronger.

Daejeon Science Museum and Expo Park

Pictures from last weekend in Daejeon (대전) - National Science Museum and Expo Park

2012

Went to see this on Sunday in Daejeon. 2 things stood out for me.

1: They mentioned the East Aea, not the sea of Japan. It looked like they were forced to say it, instead of saying "you should visit your son in Japan", when his son actually lived in Japan.

2: When a grandfather, in which his son had moved to Japan, married a japanese woman, and had a child, called his son in Japan, he pulled out a picture of his granddaughter, which of cause looks asian. A lot of the audience laughed at that moment.

Greek food in Itaewon

After studying Korean for 2 hours with Banannas, we got some lunch.





Was very tasty.

It's been a while...

Well, I've been in Anseong for 2 months now. I'd say that I've adjusted pretty well. I just wanna write an update to let people know what's going on.

1. The job.

I thought it would be different (in a good way) to my old job because it was in a public school. It's not. It feels worse. I feel that I have less support in my current job, than I have ever had as a teacher. I had more support from my hagwon boss back when I was in Korea the last time - and a whole lot more support from schools/teachers when I was in australia.

My co-teacher, who doesn't co-teach, has approached me twice and said that he wants to be included in the lessons, and wants something to do rather than just stand around (and he just spaces out - a few times i've seen him just staring into oblivion, so I've just done behavioural/class management myself in Korean, which I can deal with, because I was working in a hagwon for 3 years, where I had to do it myself). But, when it comes to actually planning together, he never shows up, and the one time he did, all he said was "Is there anything I can do?". If he had shown some initiative, and picked up a book and said "I'd like to look at the lesson for tomorrow, so we can plan something together.", I'd be a lot more impressed. He's a nice guy... but... yeah...

So, I have 6 classes with the co-teacher. They're the official curriculum classes. Then there are "bang-gwa-hu" classes (방과후 means the dismissal of class for the day), but these classes are basically after lunch anywhere between 1pm and 4pm. I have 2 of these with every class, and 1 with kindergarten. They're basically hagwon-style classes, where I'm by myself doing my own thing. Which I'm also used to doing, because of the hagwon thing. At first, I had behaviour issues with Grades 1, 2 and 3, but grade 1 and 2 have settled down, and are getting better, but there are some students who have some issues, and are really testing the limits of my patience and my skills. Still have a few things up my sleeve, it's just a matter of finding out what what's gonna work.

I also have a teachers' class on Friday afternoon. It's meant to start at 4pm, but if they turn up, it's between 4:10 and 4:20. Last Friday, only my co-teacher turned up and after seeing that he was the only one to turn up at 4:20, he thought that he should call the other teachers that normally come and remind them. I told him not too, that it's their responsibility to come on time (and gave him a bit of a look, since he turned up 20 mins late).

I've also got 3 mornings of no class, so I'm very bored at times. I've been using a bit of that time to study Korean.

2. The lifestyle

One of the first things I did was join a Gumdo place, and started doing Gumdo again. I'm in the 6:40pm class, which a good bunch of kids (and a couple of adults). It's my winding down from work time, where I can get a bit of exercise, and enjoy Korea. My teacher is pretty cool as well.

This week, gumdo is closed for the week, due to the paranoia around swine flu (and that the teacher decided to close for the week, since Anseong Elementary is closed for the week as well).

I've been travelling around to see old friends, which is nice, and have made some new friends here in Anseong too. Since I'm living in another place in Korea, I'm able to go to places that weren't easily accessible compared to where I was last time in Korea. The plan is to travel to a few of those places to check them out.

3. The future

I've got 10 months to go in my job, and I'm considering what I want to do after that. I don't think I can stay for another 12 months, if I'm offered. The plan is to save a lot of cash, and maybe even study Korean for 6 months at a uni here in Korea. Or, go home and get a "real" teaching job. I am starting to regret giving up the teaching job I had before in Mildura, to come here to work here.

Just gotta seriously think what I wanna do, and the means of which to do it.

I like Korea, just not the work.

남사당놀이 사진

Here's some photos from Namsadang Nori.

남사당놀이

Went to watch this 90-min show with H last night. Was good. Enjoyed it a lot.

Here's a few random bits from it.

한글날

Happy Hangeul Day~ ^^

Last Night

Pizza: 6,000 won ($6)
Cheese Spaghetti: 4,000 won ($4)



Pizza place's name: priceless


(Yeah, I know it doesn't say "gut" in Korean, but still made me laugh.

Ancient Tranquillity (태고의 평온)

My first track, using Logic Express.

A bit of an update

Not much happening lately. Have survived a month here, and things aren't going too bad.

Here's a few recent pics:


Met up with Bogeum and Hyunmin a week ago, and hung out. It was good to see them. Since I left Korea last year, they've got married (I missed their wedding by 2 days), and have moved into a new place.


Met up with another old friend, Taejin. We hung out in Anyang, and caught up.


A watch I bought in Anyang.


Met up with Dohyung on Friday, and relaxed at Lake Park (호주공원) in Ilsan. It was nice to see a decent sized park in Korea. But, was even better to meet up with Dohyung. Known each other for over a year, but it was the first time to meet.


Some Nike slipons I bought in Ilsan. They feel very comfortable.

Can has!

Got a bank account, so now I can get paid.
Got a phone, so now I can contact people.

Yay!

Something that could be useful from The Korean Times

The Korean Language Section (which I didn't know exist, since I don't look/read at the Korean TImes very often) seems pretty interesting if you're interested in learning Korean.

But, the romanization sucks, in my opinion *^^*

Weekend in Busan

Made my way to Cheonan-Asan Station (천안아산역), via Bus 370, a train to Cheonan, and then taxi to the station. Got tickets to Busan, and a ticket to come back Sunday afternoon.


My friend and I didn't have any lunch, so we had a late lunch - McDonalds. The McDonalds in Nampodong is huge. This is only one small section of it.


We then walked around and did a bit of shopping, and we found Frisbee - an Apple Premium Reseller. The staff there were so helpful and kind (and did the whole "한국말 잘하시네요" (you speak korean well, in a surprised voice) thing - I think I got that about 5 or 6 times this weekend). Maybe they just enjoyed their job, or maybe it was because I spent $400 there. Anyway, I had a good experience there, so the next day, I bought them some Krispy Kream donuts.

Later on that evening, we had dinner at out most favourite Galbi (갈비) restaurant in ALL of Korea, 생수갈비, met up with some of 성진's friends, and went to a bar and did a bit more shopping. They had to go, so after that, we got some Krispy Kream donuts, some drinks, and went to 용구산 공원 (Yongdusan Park) and chatted.


Sunday Morning breakfast - 소육백반, or as I called it "모닝 갈비". It was very good. A nice selection of 반찬/side dishes, and the meat wasn't overcooked, and was thinner than regular galbi/samgyeopsal.


We did a bit of internet research, and found 나무그늘, a place that has the skin care fish for your feet. So, we got some drinks, and paid for Dr. Fish. It was not busy at all, when we got there, there were only about 7 or 8 people there, including the staff working there.


Since it was very quiet there, they let us have Dr Fish for 30 minutes. It was 성진's first time to have fish eat his feet, so he was more surprised and shocked than I was when I put my feet in.

After that, went to Busan station, and made my way home. Decided to treat myself to Pizza, and got Domino's. Wasn't anywhere as good as Domino's back home, so I think I'll try some other cheaper Korean Pizza places near my house next time.

Week 2

First week of work, and first week of Geomdo, so things were pretty full on. Was pretty tiring, but survived ^^

Here's a few pics.


Added some more words to my "Word's I'm learning" wall. Have taken a few off since then, since I've used and remembered some ^^


The new washing machine arrived Wednesday afternoon. It's a lot bigger than what I thought it would be. It's very quiet, and does an awesome job.


Dinner with my Geomdo teacher, and two if his friends.


At Geomdo. I think this was one of the students who was going to Seoul on the weekend to take the Black Belt 1-dan test. Will find out the results this afternoon.